System and Method for Ranking the Quality of Internet Traffic Directed From One Web Site to Another

ABSTRACT

A system and method of determining a quality ranking of user traffic directed from at least one traffic producer Web site to a traffic consumer Web site. A reference for the traffic consumer is established on a Web site of the traffic producer. The reference includes a link from the traffic producer to a traffic quality intermediary and a unique identifier to identify the traffic consumer. The traffic quality intermediary receives user traffic data associated with the user traffic directed from the traffic producer and determines a quality ranking of the user traffic based upon the user traffic data.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. Non-Provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 10/801,199, entitled: System and Method for Rankingthe Quality of Internet Traffic Directed From One Web Site to Another,filed on Mar. 16, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. ______, which claims thebenefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.60/459,135, filed on Mar. 31, 2003, and U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 60/467,713, filed on May 2, 2003, the contents of all ofthese patent applications are incorporated in this application byreference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to Internet traffic between Web sites andmore specifically, to a system and method for ranking the quality ofuser traffic that is directed from one Web site to another Web site.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The advent of the Internet has resulted in an incredible amount ofinformation accessible to any computing device connected to this vastglobal communication network. In addition to allowing access to thisinformation, the Internet provides a means for communicating andconducting business from any location with a connected computer. TheInternet does not have geographic boundaries and is not limited to aparticular language or type of computer software/equipment. This allowsusers from all over the world to search, communicate and transactbusiness.

The World Wide Web (abbreviated as “WWW” and often referred to as “theWeb”) is a distributed, multimedia, hypertext system. It allows usersaccess to information on the Internet using the HyperText TransferProtocol (HTTP) to transmit information, browsers to present thisinformation to Web users who search or surf the Web and Web servers toretrieve the information and serve it to the browsers.

TTP is one of the three components of the Web protocol and is a set ofrules and parameters for computers to communicate over the Web. TheHyperText Markup Language (HTML) and Universal Resource Locators (URL's)are the other two components of the original Web protocol. HTTP defineshow information should be formatted and transmitted and also describeshow browsers and Web servers communicate between one another. The HTTPstandard continues to evolve and offer new capabilities in informationexchange over the Web.

Information is transferred over the Web in the form of Web documents(also referred to as “Web resources” or “Web pages”). A Web page is adocument created using the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and has aunique address on the Web referenced by its URL. Web pages often containhypertext or hyperlinks that provides a user with the ability to clickon the hyperlinked text or graphics and immediately be transferred tothe unique destination associated with the hyperlink. Web pages maycontain multimedia elements such as text, sound, graphics and videos.While HTML is the original markup language in the Web protocol thatdefines the Web, other markup languages have been and are beingdeveloped for communicating over the Web. HTML is thus an evolvingcomputer language describing how Web pages should be formatted anddisplayed on a user's screen.

A URL is a unique address for a specific resource or destination on theInternet and consists of the name of the protocol used to retrieve adocument and the address of the computer or computers containing the Webpage. It may also contain the name of a Web document itself.

Browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer™ and Netscape Navigator™,are referred to as Web clients and communicate with Web servers via HTTPto request Web documents from the Web, format received Web pages andultimately display them to the Internet users on their computer screen.

Web servers are computers running Web server programs, which handlerequests from users on the Web to retrieve information referenced at aspecific URL on the Web. After receiving the request, the Web serverreturns HTML formatted Web documents back to the requester.

Web pages may contain HyperText URL links, or hyperlinks, to other Webpages or may themselves be presented to the user in a form of speciallyformatted text or graphics. When a user clicks on a hyperlink, a browserimmediately requests and displays the Web page referenced in the link.This process is commonly known as hyperlinking.

One or more Web pages located in the same address on the Internetconstitute a Web site. A main Web page of a Web site is typicallyreferred to as the home page and can be configured to be accessedwithout specific mention of the full file name. For example, the Website for IBM™ has the home page address of http://www.ibm.com. The homepage address actually includes a specific file name such as index.htmlbut, as in IBM's case, when a standard default name is set up, users donot have to enter the full file name. Web sites are owned and maintainedby individuals, companies or organizations.

With a wealth of information available on the Internet opportunities fortransacting business have opened up and continue to grow. Increasingnumbers of Internet users have Web sites where information, products andservices are searched for, bought and sold. The vastness of theinformation available on the Web has made it necessary to find ways ofallowing Web users (Web surfers) to find Web sites that may be ofinterest to them.

Search engines, directories, portals and other resources are examples ofWeb sites created to assist Internet users in locating desiredinformation on the Web. Such resources search for and collect links toWeb sites and then store those links based on sets of keywords that maybe relevant to the Web sites. One of the ways Web users may locate aneeded Web site is by conducting a search on one of these searchresources. A search is conducted by entering keywords through a searchengines' or directories' Web site, obtaining a list of links to therelevant Web pages that were found in the keyword search, selecting alink by clicking on any of the links, and being redirected to a Web sitewhose link was clicked. A Web user may also navigate directly to adesired Web page, without the use of a search resource, by typing a URLinto the address field of a browser.

The process of a Web user accessing a Web site is referred to as a “Website visit.” The result of one or more Web users visiting a Web site byclicking a link on another Web site is user traffic between the Websites. A high number of distinct Web users navigating from one Web siteto another is referred to as “high user traffic.”

While some Web users visit or browse Web sites merely looking forinformation, some Web users visiting a Web site of an online company maychoose to conduct business with that Web site. Generally, onlinebusinesses are interested in obtaining high user traffic because it isoften believed that higher user traffic leads to higher sales andincreased revenues.

Online companies that, by virtue of their business model, encourage Webusers to navigate from their Web site(s) to other Web sites are referredto as “traffic producers.” Online companies that seek to attract Webusers are called “traffic consumers.” An online book store is an exampleof a traffic consumer because it seeks to attract Web users. An Internetdirectory is an example of a traffic producer, because its business isto redirect Web site visitors to other Web sites such as an onlinebookstore. Millions of Web sites produce and/or consume user trafficevery day.

FIG. 2 illustrates a typical Web user traffic flow environment withtraffic consumers 210 receiving user traffic 214 from traffic producers212. Traffic consumers 210 are the business Web sites of specificbusinesses promoting and/or selling products and/or services over theInternet. Examples of traffic consumers 210 illustrated in FIG. 2 are agift Web site, an insurance reseller Web site and an online bookstoreWeb site. This is meant to be exemplary and not exhaustive of the manytraffic consumers that exist on the Internet Web.

Traffic producer Web sites 212 are search engines, search portals,Internet directories or other Web sites from which user traffic isdirected to a traffic consumer 210. Some traffic producers 212 actuallyplay a dual role by attracting Web users 214 through a general orindustry specific portal and then redirecting those same Web users 214to other traffic producers 212 with more specific content. In thatscenario, the traffic producer 212 with more specific content becomes atraffic consumer before switching its role to a traffic producer.Similarly, some traffic consumers 210 play a dual role of receivingtraffic, but also redirecting user traffic to other traffic consumers210.

Traffic consumers use various advertising techniques to obtain usertraffic. Web-based advertisements come in various forms and include asexamples, banners, pop-ups, paid references/listings and prominentplacements on the traffic producers Web sites. Links to the trafficconsumer that placed the advertisement are typically embedded in theadvertisements. Web users are redirected to the traffic consumer Website after clicking on an advertisement. Traffic consumers use variouspayment techniques to compensate traffic producers for placement of theadvertisements and use of their Web site resources. Featuring ofadvertisements is one of the common ways for traffic producers to earnrevenue. Traffic consumers are interested in having their advertisementappear on multiple traffic producers' Web sites to increase theirexposure to Web users.

One method of Internet advertising for traffic consumers is the Pay PerClick (PPC) business model. In this model, a traffic consumer creates anadvertising listing consisting of a title, description, link, and set ofkeywords corresponding to its Web site's focus. The traffic consumersubmits the listing to the PPC search engine and selects a bid amountfor each keyword. The PPC search engine features the listing for thattraffic consumer along with the listings of other traffic consumers inthe order of the bid amount each has selected in the results Web pagewhen Web user searches for the bidded keyword. The higher the bid, thebetter the placement position of the traffic consumer's hyperlinkedlisting compared to the other listings with the same keywords. A Webuser may click on any of the displayed listings and would get redirectedto the Web site of the appropriate traffic consumer. Once a Web userclicks on a listing, the amount equal to the bidded amount for thekeyword is deducted from traffic consumer's account and applied to thePPC search engine account. PPC search engines may also feature a trafficconsumer's listings on the sites of its affiliate traffic producersproducing even greater exposure for the traffic consumer. An example ofa PPC business model is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,269,361 to Davis,et al.

For advertising models that generate revenue for the traffic producerbased on the number of users that select the advertisement, there is aclear monetary benefit for traffic producers to send as much usertraffic as possible to traffic consumers. For this reason, some trafficproducers may use dishonest means to generate user traffic from thetraffic producer's Web site to the traffic consumer's Web site. Forexample, a traffic producer may offer a reward to a Web user forclicking on a traffic consumer's listing repeatedly, initiate a Web sitevisit on the Web users' behalf or even use a computer program tosimulate Web users clicking on the traffic consumer's listing. Whilethere is no business benefit to this type of incentified and fictitioususer traffic, advertising fees would still be due from the trafficconsumer. Thus, there is no guarantee that each unique Web site visitfrom a traffic producer will deliver the same business value to thetraffic consumer. In general, each traffic producer generates usertraffic of different quality from the perspective of the trafficconsumer.

There exist a number of software systems, which try to measure thebusiness value of the user traffic by comparing the amount of newbusiness to the amount invested. This measurement is also known asReturn on Investment (ROI) figure. Web users are tracked throughouttheir visit on the traffic consumer's Web site and the amount of moneyspent by them to purchase products or services is correlated to theamount spent to get them to visit the Web site.

While useful in some industries, this measurement does not have muchvalue in other industries with long selling cycles such as theautomotive industry. Web users may visit a traffic consumer's Web siteas a result of advertising but may come back months later to actuallymake a purchase. It would be nearly impossible to correlate them to theoriginal visitors who came months earlier. Traffic consumers using ROIanalysis may spend months analyzing their Web site visitors withoutarriving at a clear understanding of which traffic producers have beensending them the best user traffic. Another shortcoming of ROI analysisis that it is focused on analyzing user behavior on the trafficconsumer's Web site and cannot address the issue of evaluating the useronline activity pattern on the traffic producer's Web sites.

Even though ROI and other measurements are useful for some onlinebusinesses, advanced programming capabilities or third party analyticalsoftware as well as long data collection periods are necessary tocollect enough data for analysis to be successful. Many trafficconsumers may not have the benefit of both.

No known system or method exists to assist a traffic consumer inquantifying the quality of user traffic received from a specific trafficproducer. Merely knowing from which site user traffic is generated doesnot provide information regarding the quality of that traffic to abusiness-it does not quantify the likelihood that the user traffic ishuman generated, comes from Web users interested in the trafficconsumer's wares and is relevant to the traffic consumer's line ofbusiness. With this user traffic quality information currently lackingin existing systems, a traffic consumer does not have the ability toadequately assess where to advertise, the type of advertising to placeand how much to pay for the advertising.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention involves a system and method of determining aquality ranking of user traffic directed from at least one trafficproducer Web site to a traffic consumer Web site. A reference for thetraffic consumer is established on a Web site of the traffic producer.The reference includes a link from the traffic producer to a trafficquality intermediary and a unique identifier to identify the trafficconsumer. The traffic quality intermediary receives user traffic dataassociated with the user traffic directed from the traffic producer anddetermines a quality ranking of the user traffic based upon the usertraffic data.

An additional step includes redirecting the user traffic to the trafficconsumer Web site that was originally selected by the user, after theuser traffic is directed to the traffic quality intermediary.

A still further step includes reporting the quality ranking to thetraffic consumer.

In one embodiment, the step of determining a quality ranking involvescomparing each of the plurality of traffic data parameters that make upthe user traffic data against a baseline group. The baseline group iscomprised of a respective baseline for each of the user traffic dataparameters. A deviation is then determined for each of the plurality oftraffic data parameters of the user traffic based on the comparison. Thedeviations for each of the plurality of traffic data parameters areweighted with a predetermined weight assigned to each of the pluralityof traffic data parameters. The weighted deviations are then combined toarrive at the traffic quality ranking.

In still another embodiment, at least one traffic data parameter of theuser traffic data is aggregated, before the user traffic data iscompared against a baseline. Once the aggregated user traffic data isused in determining the deviations, the deviations are normalized to fitthe same standard and the quality ranking is determined based upon thenormalized user traffic.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will not be described by way of non-limitingexample, with reference to the attached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is diagram showing an overview of the system in accordance withthe present invention;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of the prior art;

FIG. 3 is a diagram of an exemplary traffic quality intermediary shownin FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of steps involved in the method of the presentinvention;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of exemplary steps of a registering a trafficconsumer in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of exemplary steps of establishing a referenceon the Web site of a traffic producer, in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of exemplary steps of receiving and storinguser traffic data, in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of exemplary steps for determining a qualityranking, in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of exemplary steps for providing probe code toobtain additional user traffic data.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The system and method of the present invention monitors user trafficbetween traffic producers and traffic consumers to quantify the qualityof the user traffic and detect fraud. In order to quantify the qualityof user traffic, various parameters are identified, weighted andcompared against baseline values established for these parameters. Thebaseline values are created as a result of collecting and analyzingtraffic data from other Web sites. The quality ranking information thatresults from the present invention is provided to a traffic consumer tohelp quantify the overall quality of each traffic producer analyzed. Thetraffic consumer is able to adjust the weighting of the variousparameters that make up the individual traffic producer ranking in orderto better correlate the quality ranking to more closely reflect thetraffic consumer's line of business.

The present invention acts as an intermediary or monitor between trafficproducers and traffic consumers by collecting information about usertraffic traversing between these entities. The collected information isthen analyzed and ranked against one or more established baselines forthe various parameters. As more information becomes available, thebaseline parameters are adjusted to the changing conditions of thespecific industry, for example, to more accurately reflect trafficquality for that segment. Traffic consumers would not have to wait weeksor months to collect and analyze traffic data from a traffic producer todetermine the likelihood of conversions (sales) from an advertisinginvestment. Rankings can be produced to assess and compare the qualityof a specific traffic producer's traffic against one or more baselines,such as, traffic producers within related industries, overall Webranking data if no segment/industry information is available, andranking data against traffic producer's previous performance ifsufficient data is present.

There is shown in FIG. 1 a traffic quality ranking system 200. Trafficquality ranking system 200 uses a traffic quality intermediary (ortraffic quality monitor) 222 positioned to intercept user traffic 214directed from traffic producers 212 to traffic consumers 210. Trafficquality intermediary 222 collects and analyzes user traffic from trafficproducers 212, and reports on the quality of user traffic from eachtraffic producer 212 to each traffic consumer 210. Traffic qualityintermediary 222 determines the quality of user traffic between specifictraffic producers 212 and specific traffic consumers 210 by measuringthe traffic against established baseline values to arrive at a trafficquality ranking. An example of a specific traffic producer 212 is sportsportal 212 a. A specific example of a traffic consumer 210 is onlinebookstore 210 a. If online bookstore 210 a has engaged traffic qualityintermediary 222 to evaluate user traffic from sports portal 212 a,traffic quality intermediary 222 will collect and analyze the usertraffic from sports portal 212 a and report on the quality of the usertraffic with a quality ranking.

In an exemplary embodiment, the analysis results in several qualityrankings, comparing the actual user traffic 214 a from sports portal 212a against baseline traffic for sports portal 212 a, baseline traffic forthe industry in which sports portal 212 a is defined and a baseline ofgeneral Web traffic. Baseline adjustments may be made to accommodatechanging user traffic conditions occurring in a particular industry tomore accurately reflect traffic quality for that industry. Otherbaselines can be established and used as may be desired to provideuseful information to a traffic consumer 210. For example, an industryof sports traffic producers may be limited to multiple, different sportsportals or may be broader, including any portal that sells or promotesany sports related merchandise/services. In an alternative embodiment,baselines may also be tailored to certain time periods, such as times ofday, seasons or the occurrence of special events. The quality rankingrelating to a general Web traffic baseline may be useful when there isno relevant industry data available.

Traffic quality intermediary 222 serves as an intermediary between atleast one traffic producer 212 and at least one traffic consumer 210. Inan exemplary embodiment, a traffic consumer 210 engages traffic qualityintermediary 222 to rank the quality of the traffic it receives from atleast one particular traffic producer 212.

As a part of the insertion of traffic quality intermediary between atraffic producer and a traffic consumer, a reference, such as a listingor advertisement for a particular traffic consumer 210, is placed on aparticular traffic producer 212. This reference includes a hyperlink totraffic quality intermediary 222 instead of directly to traffic consumer210. As Web users get redirected from the Web site of a traffic producer212 to the Web site of a traffic consumer 210, the request arrives atthe Web server of traffic quality intermediary 222, based on thehyperlink. This allows traffic quality intermediary 222 to obtain therelevant user traffic data for use in determining a quality ranking.

The process of intercepting the user traffic and collecting the usertraffic data is transparent to the Web user. When a request from atraffic producer 212 arrives at the Web server of traffic qualityintermediary 222, the available user traffic data associated with therequest and the user is collected and stored. Traffic qualityintermediary 222 redirects the Web user to the Web site of the requestedtraffic consumer 210. The Web user is not actually aware that theintermediary step takes place. While collection of the user traffic datamay imply the invasion of a Web user's privacy, the information accessedis readily available to traffic consumer 210 through HTTP. In addition,traffic quality intermediary 222 has been authorized by traffic consumer210 to collect this information on its behalf. From the Web user'sprospective, the click on the reference on the Web site of trafficproducer 212 takes the user directly to the selected Web site of trafficconsumer 210 without any noticeable delay.

There is shown in FIG. 3 an illustration of an exemplary traffic qualityintermediary 222. Traffic quality intermediary 222 may consist of one ormore Web servers 224. The collected user traffic data is stored in adatabase 226 which may be located on one or more Web servers 224 oranother computer/server (not shown). When a sufficient amount of usertraffic data is stored in database 226 or a sufficient time period ofcollecting user traffic data has lapsed, the user traffic data isanalyzed to determine one or more quality rankings of user traffic froma particular traffic producer 212. The analysis of the user traffic datamay be done on a separate analysis computer 228 or directly on one ormore of the Web servers 224. Analysis computer 228 need not be in thesame physical location as Web servers 224. Once the user traffic data isanalyzed, the quality ranking(s) is determined and reported to thespecific traffic consumer 210 that engaged traffic quality intermediary222. The quality ranking may be available to the particular trafficconsumer 210 through a secure Web site hosted on Web servers 224,communicated in an e-mail or by other secure communicationmediums/methods.

In an exemplary embodiment, database 226 is maintained on a dualmicroprocessor server using 1.4 megahertz Intel™ microprocessors and 2gigabytes of RAM. An exemplary database server 224 runs Windows 2000™ asits operating system and Microsoft's SQL Server 2000™. Also in anexemplary embodiment, the front-end Web servers 224 are single processorservers using 1.4 megahertz Intel™ processors with 1 gigabyte of RAM.Web servers 224 are running Microsoft IIS JRun version 3.1, a product ofMacromedia, Inc. of San Francisco, Calif. As will be understood by thoseskilled in the art, the present invention is not limited to the hardwareor software platform that has been described. The necessary hardware andsoftware platforms allow for communication over the Internet and the Weband are sufficient to collect, store, analyze and report on user trafficdata. Such platforms must also allow the capture and then redirecting ofa user's requested hyperlink. Many hardware and software platforms havethis capability or can be modified to provide these features.

There is shown in FIG. 4 a flow diagram 10 illustrating the steps of themethods of the present invention. In block 12, a traffic consumer 210 isregistered with traffic quality intermediary 222. Once a trafficconsumer 210 is registered, the process moves to block 14 where areference is placed on the Web site of a traffic producer 212 to pointto traffic intermediary 222 and identify traffic consumer 210 as aselection of a user. The process effectively links the reference/listingfor a traffic consumer 210 to traffic quality intermediary 222. If thereare multiple listings for a traffic consumer 210, each one is linked totraffic quality intermediary 222 with an identifier of traffic consumer210. When a user accesses or clicks on the listing for traffic consumer210, the user is directed to traffic quality intermediary 222 by way ofa hyperlink associated with the listing for traffic consumer 210. Aspreviously noted, this redirection of user traffic to traffic qualityintermediary 222 is transparent to the user. In block 18, the usertraffic data associated with the user traffic is received, collected andstored at traffic quality intermediary 222. Next, in block 20, the useris redirected to the Web site of traffic consumer 210 whose listing hadbeen selected by the user. Finally, in block 22 a quality ranking foruser traffic directed to traffic consumer 210 from traffic producer 212is determined so that it can be reported to traffic consumer 210.

The exemplary steps of registering a traffic consumer with trafficquality intermediary 222 are shown in more detail in FIG. 5. A trafficconsumer must be registered or recognized in some fashion by trafficintermediary 222 in order for the system and method of the presentinvention to operate. A traffic consumer is not required to registereach time the system is used and the method is applied. In block 24 thetraffic consumer 210 being registered is assigned a unique URLidentifier. Traffic consumer 210 submits one or more URLs associatedwith the desired references to be placed on a traffic producer 212. EachURL that a traffic consumer registers is assigned a unique URLidentifier. The URL identifier may be unique per traffic intermediarysystem or per traffic consumer. In this way, each listing or URL storedwith traffic quality intermediary 222 is unique. The URLs for the Website of a traffic consumer 210 are stored (block 26) along with anynecessary contact information for traffic consumer 210 (block 28). Inblock 30, the particular traffic data parameters of the user traffic(both intercepted traffic parameters and analyzed/assigned trafficparameters are selected and/or weighted for use in determining thequality ranking of user traffic. It may be that the traffic parametersand/or the weighting are set to defaults and not selected by trafficconsumer 210.

In an exemplary embodiment, registering a traffic consumer 210 mayinvolve receiving additional information about the traffic consumer 210.This information includes but is not limited to the name of a contactperson for the traffic consumer, specific contact information (address,telephone, e-mail, fax) and the full name of the company. If applicable,a traffic consumer would be able to provide more detailed information onany of the Web sites in that traffic consumer's domain that will be usedin the user traffic analysis. It may be necessary for the trafficconsumer to provide explicit permission for traffic quality intermediary222 to set itself up as an intermediary and to collect and route usertraffic on behalf of traffic consumer 210. Traffic quality intermediary222 may also be interested in general information about the onlinebusiness of traffic consumer 210 to better assess into which industrygroup/segment traffic consumer 210 fits, as well as the weighting anduse of the various traffic data parameters. Information about thetraffic consumer's business may also include typical amounts of trafficand the list of traffic producers that the traffic consumer is seekingto evaluate. The selected traffic producers 210 may or may not be in useby traffic consumer 210 at the time it registers with traffic qualityintermediary 222. In an exemplary embodiment for secure communicationsbetween the traffic consumer and the traffic quality intermediaryregarding the traffic quality rankings, a login and password areestablished. The information provided by the traffic consumer is storedin the database.

Traffic consumer 210 would have to decide who (traffic consumer ortraffic quality intermediary) would be accessing traffic producer's Website to place/modify the link(s) on the traffic consumer's listing topoint to traffic intermediary 222. Whoever provides the link must usethe appropriate traffic quality intermediary's URL containing the uniquetraffic consumer's URL identifier to make it possible to locate thetraffic consumer's URL and make a redirection to the traffic consumer'sWeb site (as specified by the URL provided by the traffic consumer). Anexample of what a linking traffic consumer's URL to a traffic qualityintermediary 222 may look like is:

http://www.trafficanalyst.com/index.jsp?urlid=123.

In FIG. 6, the step of changing a URL on the Web site of a trafficproducer 212 (step 14) is illustrated. In block 32, traffic producer 212is provided with a URL of traffic quality intermediary 222 that includesthe unique identifier assigned to the particular traffic consumer 210URL. The URL of traffic quality intermediary 222 replaces the existingtraffic consumer's URL. The purpose of adding urlid=123 (for the aboveexample) to the end of the link of the traffic intermediary is to makeit possible to retrieve the unique URL of a traffic consumer 210 whenredirecting a user to the requested/selected traffic consumer 210. Thispractice is called parameterizing the URL. Traffic quality intermediary222 may choose to add any number of extra parameters to its URL as it isbeing placed on a traffic producer Web site if it necessary for trafficinformation collecting purposes.

Traffic quality intermediary 222 may also be asked to modify the entirelisting of a traffic consumer 210, and not just the traffic consumer'sURL. Traffic quality intermediary 222 would do so, provided that all ofthe necessary information for the listing and to contact the trafficproducer is provided. In block 34, the method and manner of listing atraffic consumer on a traffic producer Web site is defined. This couldinclude the type of advertisement, the ranking of the advertisement, thenumber and location of the placement of the advertisement and thekeywords associated with the advertisement/traffic consumer. Once atraffic consumer is registered, the number and manner of listings and/orURL's of the traffic consumer, can change as often as desired by thetraffic consumer.

Finally, in block 36, the user traffic parameters of the request thatwill be used in determining traffic quality rankings for trafficconsumer 210 are selected for the user traffic data sent to trafficquality intermediary 222 when a user clicks on the reference/listing.Configuring or selecting the user traffic data parameters allows thetraffic consumer to identify which user traffic parameters are to beused and/or weighted in generating one or more traffic quality ranking.In an exemplary embodiment, the number of traffic quality parameterscollected and stored from each user's traffic data is fixed. For thosetraffic quality parameters that are not being used by the trafficconsumer, the weight of those parameters will be set to zero. In analternative embodiment, additional traffic parameters are specified andused for a traffic consumer.

Traffic parameters include information available and communicatedthrough the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). As the HTTP protocolevolves, it is feasible that some or all of the parameters may change ornew ones may be added. A goal of the present system is to take advantageof all of the available parameters in the analysis, to the fullestextent needed for a particular analysis. Depending upon the particulartraffic consumer, traffic producers and industries involved, fewer orgreater numbers of the available user traffic data parameters may berelevant to the analysis. As mentioned earlier, additional information,unique to the particular Web user's selection of the traffic consumerlisting on the traffic producer Web site may also be forwarded as usertraffic data. Calculated/assigned traffic parameters, such as time anddate information and click patterns, can be determined at the trafficquality intermediary. The parameters of user traffic data collected fromthe request include but are not limited to:

1. The time of the request. This is a recorded time of an actual clickusing standard time zones to identify peaks and valleys of normalInternet traffic levels. These peaks and valleys may be the result ofnormal user activities of sleeping, working, shopping or browsing, aswell as exceptional circumstances, such as holidays and special events.

2. Referring URL. The referring URL identifies source of origin and isused for monitoring and filtering unwanted user traffic. Metrics about areferring URL including link popularity, average search engine rankingand reported monthly site visits can be used in assessing the value of areferring URL.

3. Keyword Phrases. Keyword phrases are the set of words which weresearched by the user for or dynamically displayed based on contentchannels which determine the targetability of the traffic consumerslisting.

Generally speaking, the more words within the set of keyword phrases,the greater the targetability.

4. Click Patterns. Click patterns refer to the similarity of keywordphrases being searched or clicked and the interval (period of timebetween clicks or between searching) of each keyword phase as it relatesto other data recorded consistent with human behavior.

5. Browser Language. The browser language is the designation set withina Web browser that is part of the standard used in recording whatlanguage someone is viewing or information. This may reflect the countryor origin of the user.

6. Internet Protocol (IP) Address. On a TCP/IP network, such as theInternet, the IP address is an assigned number that uniquely identifieseach system on the network. Both the network and the computer arerepresented in the sequence that makes up the IP address. Each computer(or host) on the Internet has at least one IP address that uniquelyidentifies that computer from all other computers on the Internet. TheIP address of the user allows the system to compare the frequency,geographical location, click patterns including keyword relevancy andother aspects like browser language to determine whether user trafficdata collected logically corresponds to the known geographic region ofthe IP address.

7. Screen Settings. Screen setting generally known as resolution or dpi(dots per inch) identifies the screen settings of each user selecting atraffic consumer's Web site. It is possible to collect width, height,color, and depth information about Web user's screen.

8. X and Y Spatial Coordinates. The spatial coordinates correspond tothe location within a screen (computer monitor) in which a user actuallyperforms a click to access additional information from a button, textlink, or other image form that identifies the traffic consumer Web site.

9. Proxy Usage. Proxy usage relates to whether a request had comethrough a named proxy. Proxy servers may be used by ISP's for protectionof its users as a firewall. Traffic producers that send trafficcontaining a large percentage of proxy usage, however, are generallysuspected of fraud since statistically, proxy-based traffic represents alow percentage of all Internet traffic. However some traffic producerssuch as America Online (AOL™) are entirely proxy-based so user trafficcoming from them would be mostly proxy-based. Specific cases such asthis must be taken into account when calculating the ranking values.

10. Cookies. Cookies are a set of small files stored within a user'scomputer relating to Web sites accessed by a user.

11. Browser type. The type and version of a browser.

12. Operating system. Language, browser type and the operating systemare part of the user agent parameter of the request. The diversity ofvalues of this parameter may serve as an indication that the traffic isnot simulated.

13. Click Delay. The time between a search request and an actual clickby a user on a link found in the set of results displayed. A Click delaythat is less than 1 second reflects abnormal human behavior found withclick programs. Too long of a delay may mean some other form ofnon-industry accepted type of traffic.

Additional traffic parameters available through HTTP,calculated/assigned following a user click or other ways can be used asdeemed necessary to assist in determining a traffic quality ranking ofuser traffic.

FIG. 7 shows the steps involved in receiving and storing user traffic(step 18). In block 40 user traffic data is received at traffic qualityintermediary 222 from the Web site of a traffic producer 212. In block42 the user traffic data is stored in database 226 in association withthe selected traffic consumer 210 so that the user traffic data can beanalyzed and a traffic quality ranking determined. In an exemplaryembodiment, when the request is received from a traffic producer 212 Website at a traffic quality intermediary 222 Web server, the request willarrive at a Java™ server page (JSP) or another vehicle designated toreceive HTTP requests. The JSP then extracts all of the available usertraffic data from the request and stores it in database 226. The trafficproducer's URL is retrieved based on the unique ID that was includedwith the URL of traffic quality intermediary 222. The user is thenredirected to the desired Web site of traffic consumer 210.

In an exemplary embodiment, the user traffic data stored in database 226is organized as a table or in multiple tables for analysis andreporting. In this table (or tables), a row is set up for the usertraffic data that is transmitted with each user/click. In another tableor tables, traffic consumer parameters are stored. Each column of thetable is organized by the specific user traffic parameters. The table isthen populated with user traffic data for additional users/clicks thatwere directed to traffic quality intermediary 222 from a trafficproducer 212.

An example of a table (Clicks Table 1) populated with fictional usertraffic data broken down by parameters is as follows:

Clicks Table 1 userIP Referrer URL User Agent Language time proxy11.111.222.222 http://www.traffic-producer1.com Netscape, Win 98 en_us2/26/03 AOL 11:04 111 pm 111.111.222.223http://www.traffic-producer1.com Netscape, Win XP en_ca 2/26/03 11:04123 pm 111.111.222.224 http://www.traffic-producer1.com ME, Win 95 en_gb2/26/03 11:04 334 pm

In this exemplary clicks table, six fields of user traffic parameters(columns) and three individual clicks (rows) of user traffic data areshown. After a set period of time or a set number of clicks, usertraffic data is aggregated (block 45, FIG. 8) as part of the analysisprocess. The User Agent field includes browser type, browser version,operating system and operating system version. This information couldalso be broken down into separate fields in an alternative embodiment.

The following Aggregated Data Table 2 shows an example of user trafficdata aggregated from a fictional ten thousand users (clicks):

Aggregated Data Table 2 % % % Asia- % Latin % unique % us % % unique %US Europe Pacific America % black time range user Agents English Englishproxy IP IP IP IP IP listed IP (millsec) 40 70 80 20 50 80 10 2 2 107,200,000

For this aggregated data table, the percentages of each user trafficdata parameter or subset within a parameter are listed. The Black ListedIP field pertains to IP addresses that are black listed or otherwisetagged as special. This may be from an internal list of traffic qualityintermediary 222, an external list or a combination of the two. The timerange is the time period over which the data set was collected. In thisexample, it is the time period over which the ten thousand entries wascollected—7,200,000 milliseconds or two hours. This is another item ofcalculated/assigned traffic data. The percent of unique user agents iscalculated as illustrated in the following example. If in a set of 10entries there were 5 unique entries, the set exhibits 50% uniqueness.High uniqueness shows better breakdown of data and implies that it isnot computer generated.

There is shown in FIG. 8 a flow diagram for determining the qualityranking of user traffic (block 22) by comparing user traffic dataagainst stored baseline values for each parameter of user traffic data.In block 44, a baseline value for each traffic data parameter is set.The baseline value can be a number, a number within a range, a numberwithin a defined set, a percentage, a Boolean value or other numericrepresentation of a “value” for a parameter's baseline. The baselinevalue may be arrived at from a history of collected data or a subjectiveassessment of each traffic data parameter. The baseline value may differfrom traffic producer to traffic producer or from industry to industry.Baseline representation is not limited to any particular implementation.

In block 45, the user traffic data is aggregated over a period of timeor multiple clicks/users. While the system and method of the presentinvention can provide a quality ranking based upon the user traffic dataof a single user, it is likely that a traffic consumer will obtainbetter information regarding user traffic based upon multiple users.Thus, in most if not all cases, it is likely that the user traffic datawill be aggregated.

In block 46, each traffic data parameter from the user traffic data iscompared against the corresponding baseline value to determine adeviation value. The deviation value is the difference between actualuser traffic data for a particular parameter and the baseline value. Therules for determining a deviation may depend upon the type of valuebeing used for a particular parameter. For example if the browserlanguage parameter is being analyzed, a percentage of users usingcertain languages over a period of time (or number of users) may be thebest way to represent the number of users using English, Spanish, etc.For each time period (or number of users) where a determination is beingmade, the percentage of users of a particular language aggregated overthe time over the time period (or number of users) is determined andcompared against the baseline. The deviation is then the differencebetween the baseline and the actual. One traffic consumer may want touse the percentage of English users as the baseline, while another maychose to use the percentage of Spanish users. Still another may use abaseline that includes the additive percentage of English and Spanishusers (or other languages or combination of languages) in conductingtraffic analysis.

The following is an example of an industry baseline table for sportsproducers. The percentages will be used as a reference to compare thepercentages of the collected user traffic data. The data below isfictitious, for purposes of illustration. The actual baseline isdetermined by observation of patterns of various parameters within anindustry of interest for a reasonable amount of time or number ofclicks. A time range column is not shown on this baseline table.

In order to maintain proper baseline weightings, the baseline valuesshould be regularly compared against the actual user traffic data andcalculated deviations. In an exemplary embodiment, similar patterns ofthe baselines are adjusted continually to reflect changes in traffic and80% of averaged data are taken into account when adjusting the baseline.About 20% of traffic data exhibiting extreme deviations is disregardedso as to not to skew the baseline with abnormal readings. In otherimplementations, other methods may be used to keep the baseline in linewith the changing conditions on the Web.

There are Web sites or services that offer ranking data for the variousWeb sites and that ranking data can be used to estimate expected trafficactivity for each Web site per time period. An example is the Alexa™ranking available at www.alexa.com. This data can be used to determinethe deviation of the traffic activity in the sample data set fromestimated values. This parameter of the baseline is helpful because ifthe ranking indicates fairly low traffic activity and the actualcollected data shows much higher activity pattern, it may indicate thatdata was computer generated. Expected activity amount is not shown onthe table below.

Depending on the target audience of a traffic producer's Web site, timeactivity pattern may be visible that demonstrates the activity patternsof the Web site visitors. For example, US-based traffic consumers maytend to show the highest activity at 3 pm and the lowest at 5 am. Thisis another useful parameter of the baseline. Observed time activitypattern is graphed against the expected activity time pattern to showany deviations that may exist. For example, if a US-based Web site showsan even time activity pattern, it may serve as an indication that noactual Web users are creating time activity. Time activity pattern isnot shown on the exemplary Sports Baseline Table 3, below.

Sports Baseline Table 3 % % % Latin % black % unique % us % unique % usEurope % Asia- America listed user Agents English % English proxy IP IPIP Pacific IP IP IP 80 75 80 5 70 80 3 1 0 0

In an exemplary embodiment, once the deviations are determined, thedeviation values are normalized in block 47. Normalization is theadjustment of a series of values according to some transformationfunction in order to make them comparable with some specific point ofreference or number range. Normalization is often used and sometimesrequired when the incompatibility of the measurement units acrossvariables may affect the results or when a final report could benefitfrom expressing the results in specific meaningful/compatible units. Inan exemplary embodiment of the present invention, deviations arenormalized because some deviation values may have wide ranges and may bedisproportionate to the other deviation values. Without normalization,the resulting quality ranking could be skewed and unreliable.Normalization allows overcoming the vast differences that may existbetween the deviations for individual parameters to enable to view allthe parameters from an equal perspective. For example, if the baselinefor Chinese language on the US-based educational Web site is 0.5% andactual values come up to be 80% the deviation is 16,000%. In anexemplary embodiment, normalization is accomplished by setting upspecific ranges for each baseline parameter and assigning a differentvalue to each range.

An example of a Normalization Table 4 for one of the user traffic dataparameters—% unique user agents—is shown below:

TABLE 4 Normalization Field deviation % start deviation % end points %unique 0  5 100 userAgents % unique 6 10 80 userAgents % unique 11 20 50userAgents % unique 21 50 30 userAgents % unique 51 75 20 userAgents %unique 76 95 5 userAgents % unique 95 100 or > 0 userAgents

In this normalization table, ranges are set up for the start and endingpoints of the deviations determined by comparing the collected dataagainst the baseline data. In Normalization Table 4, seven ranges areestablished. Points are assigned based on where the deviation determinedagainst the baseline. For this example, points are awarded between 0(greatest deviation) and 100+ (smallest deviation). Thus if thedeviation % is zero, 100 points are assigned. If the deviation % is100%, 0 points are assigned. Other scales or ranges could be used,depending upon the application. Using the examples above, 40% of thecollected data was from unique user agents compared to a baseline orexpected value of 80%. This results in a determination that thecollected data has a deviation of 50% (40% is 50% of 80%) from thebaseline data. Using the Normalization table, a deviation of 30 pointsis found, since the determined deviation of 50% is between 21% and 50%.Similar determinations are made for each user traffic data parameter.The normalization tables and scales will usually be different for eachparameter.

Next, the normalized deviations are calculated for all of the otherparameters for which normalization is determined, to generate aNormalized Deviations Table 5, an example of which is shown below:

Normalized Deviations Table 5 Asia- Latin Black time User US UniqueEurope Pacific America listed range activity Agents English EnglishProxy IP USIP IP IP IP IP** (millsec) curve 30 90 100 95 70 100 90 90 9010 100 70

In block 48, a weight for each traffic data parameter is set. Weightsfor particular traffic data parameters may be set differently and varyfrom one traffic consumer to another. It may be that a single parameteris determinative of the overall quality ranking, based on the weightassigned to that parameter. Conversely, a parameter may have little orno bearing on the traffic quality ranking, based upon the weightassigned to it. Weights can also be adjusted over time to moreaccurately provide a user traffic quality ranking. In an exemplaryembodiment, weights are initially set based on the objective informationdetermined by traffic quality intermediary 222 by collecting andanalyzing the user traffic for a time period. In and exemplaryembodiment, the last three years are used as the time period. Ininitially implementing the present invention, weights could initially beset to be the same for every parameter and gradually shifted byobserving the significance of every parameter in the determination ofthe traffic quality over time.

After the normalized deviations table is generated, the values areweighted, using weights stored in a weights table, such as the SportsTraffic Consumer Weights Table 6 below:

Sports Traffic Consumer Weights Table 6 Asia- Latin Black time User USUnique Europe Pacific America listed range activity Agents EnglishEnglish Proxy IP USIP IP IP IP IP** (millsec) curve 5 0 10 20 40 0 0 0 015 5 5

The weights used for a particular traffic producer may be shifted basedon additional information that may be available. For example, if AOL™ isbeing evaluated as a traffic producer, its proxy values would be muchhigher than expected based on the baselines, given the fact that all ofits traffic is proxy-based. Thus, in this case proxy weight might be setto 0 and all of the other parameters increased equally. The weights mayalso be adjusted over time by the traffic consumer and/or the trafficquality intermediary to arrive at useful and accurate traffic qualityrankings.

In step 50 the normalized deviation value determined in block 47 ismultiplied by the baseline weight set in block 48 to determine a qualityranking for each traffic data parameter. Then, in block 52 the rankingsfor each traffic data parameter are added to determine a total qualityranking for user traffic for a particular traffic producer. Once weightsare established for each parameter, the weights for each parameter aremultiplied by the corresponding normalized deviation value. Theweighted, normalized deviation values are then added together to arriveat a final quality ranking for a particular traffic producer. This isshown in the following Final Ranking Table 7 as a final user trafficquality ranking of 7365 (on the scale from 0 to 10,000):

Final Ranking Table 7 Asia- Latin Black time User US Unique US EuropePacific America listed range activity Agents English English Proxy IP IPIP IP IP IP (millsec) curve weights 5 0 10 20 40 0 0 0 0 15 5 5deviation 30 90 100 95 70 100 90 90 90 10 100 0 values weights * 150 01000 1900 2800 0 0 0 0 150 500 0 values ranking 7365

In an exemplary embodiment, a traffic quality ranking is determined fora number of users over a period of time. In such a system, thedeviations are determined after the user traffic data is aggregated forall users within the predetermined time frame for collecting data. Asoftware routine is triggered at set intervals of time or number ofusers/clicks for whom user traffic data has been stored. For example, ifhourly data is desired, user traffic data stored in database 226 for thepreceding hour will be accessed each hour. Each hour, the user trafficdata for each user traffic producer will be aggregated for use indetermining deviations from the baseline values. The total for each usertraffic data producer will then be normalized. Following normalization,the normalized data will then be compared against the baseline value forthat particular producer to determine if there is any deviation. If aquality ranking is being determined against a general baseline, anindustry baseline, and a specific baseline for a consumer Web site, thedeviations are determined against each of these three different baselinevalues and stored separately.

In an exemplary embodiment, the top ranking is set to be 10,000.Regardless of the number of parameters involved and the respectiveweights applied to them, the total ranking cannot exceed 10,000. Forexample, one parameter with 100 points multiplied by a weight of100=10,000. Two parameters with 100 points multiplied by weights of 50and combined: 100*50+100*50=10,000. In other embodiments a different topranking value can be set. Finally, the method for combination of datafrom each parameter may differ from the exemplary embodiment of addingthe weighted normalized deviation values together.

Quality rankings can be determined over any period of time such as anhour, a day, week or month. Alternatively, instead of averaging the usertraffic data parameters over a given period of time, the user qualityrankings determined for a particular interval can be aggregated over alarger period of time. In this way, user traffic quality rankings foreach hour can be averaged over a day, week, month, etc.

In reporting quality ranking to traffic consumers, a graphical displaywill be provided of all aggregate parameter deviations for each produceras well as the weightings applied to each of the parameters. Finalrankings and numbers will be shown as well. General, industry andspecific traffic producer ranking figures will be shown. Trafficconsumers will be able to view the historical data for the industry, aswell as the particular traffic producers. The traffic consumer will beable to adjust the weights to arrive at quality ranking figures that maybe more appropriate for their line of business angle. To furtherevaluate the data, a traffic consumer will be able to supply dollaramounts spent on listing with each traffic producer to determine theoverall effectiveness of each traffic producer.

Visual interface may use colors to make it easier for the trafficconsumer to see the difference in rankings. Thus, high rankings would beshown in green and low ranking in red. Shadings will be used todemonstrate the strength of the particular ranking. Bright red mayindicate very low ranking. Bright green may indicate very high ranking.Individual deviations may also use colors to make it easy for thetraffic consumers to immediately spot the trouble areas of theirtraffic.

In an alternative embodiment, the present invention can also be used inevaluating actual business or money spent by users referred from atraffic producer to a traffic consumer. For this embodiment, the trafficconsumer would provide data regarding how much was spent, when it wasspent and similar information to traffic quality intermediary 222. Acorrelation can be made regarding the amount spent and the number ofclicks per time period and the traffic quality ranking.

Two useful measurements may help the traffic consumer to put a value onthe advertising campaign:

Value For Dollar: (Total Clicks * Rankings)/(Total Rankings * DollarsSpent) Cost Per Value: (Total Rankings * Dollars Spent)/(Total Clicks *Rankings)

For example, a Traffic Producer Value Table 8 is shown below:

Traffic Producer Value Table 8 Total Clicks Producer Sent Per AmountValue For Name 24 hours Ranking Spent Dollar Cost Per Value Producer11000 8000 $200 4 0.25 Producer2 1000 9000 $200 5 0.222

This table compares two traffic producers, each producing 1000 users(clicks) in a 24-hour period. The first (Producer1) has a trafficquality ranking of 8000 and the second (Producer2) has a traffic qualityranking of 9000. These traffic quality rankings were previouslydetermined. Users from each traffic producer spent a total of $200 atthe traffic consumer during the 24-hour period. In the last two columnsthe traffic consumer would be able to see that advertising with trafficProducer2 may yield better value at lower cost than Producer1.

In the next Traffic Producer Value Table 9, the traffic producers directusers spending the same dollar amounts at the traffic consumer, but withdifferent amounts of user traffic directed over the 24-hour period.

Traffic Producer Value Table 9 Total Clicks Producer Sent per AmountValue For Name 24 hours Ranking Spent Dollar Cost Per Value Producer3200 10000 $100 2 0.5 Producer4 1000 8000 $100 8 0.125

Based on the data above the traffic consumer might be able to reach someimportant conclusions. It appears that user traffic from Producer4 ischeaper and of a lower ranking. Producer4, however, offers a highervalue per dollar and costs less due to the fact that the total number ofclicks sent is so high. In other words even if Producer3 sends a higherquality of traffic to a traffic consumer, Producer4 sends much moretraffic that ultimately results in more of Producer4 users buying intothe products the traffic consumer may be advertising. It may seemcounterintuitive, but at a certain point, a high amount of inexpensiveand lower quality traffic from Producer4 may actually mean betterresults for the traffic consumer. Under other scenarios, the higherquality traffic producer may provide the better value to a trafficconsumer.

In the next example, the ranking of traffic Producer6 is much lower thanthat of Producer5. It is possible to see that with such a low ranking,traffic Producer6 may not be able to deliver as much high value at alower cost as Producer5.

Traffic Producer Value Table 10 Total Clicks Producer Sent per AmountValue For Name 24 hours Ranking Spent Dollar Cost Per Value Producer5200 10000 $100 2 0.5 Producer6 8000 2000 $100 1.6 0.625

Putting in the amounts spent may help the traffic consumer makenecessary adjustments in the weights for the traffic parameters tobetter represent their business model. For example, if the trafficconsumer is US-based business and knows that traffic producers beingevaluated are strictly US-based as well, traffic consumer may set theweight of US-based English to 10 and weight of English to 0 to betteraccess the US-based Web users coming from the traffic consumers.

In an alternative embodiment, traffic data collected from each user'srequest could be supplemented with traffic data collected when a trafficconsumer's listing is displayed on a traffic producer's Web site.

For example, software code capable of being interpreted and executed bya user's browser can be embedded in a traffic consumer's listing(reference). When this listing is requested from the traffic producer'sWeb site by the Web user, the embedded code will be invoked by the Webuser's browser to collect additional information about the trafficproducer and the Web user. A request for the listing may be in the formof a request for a results list from a search initiated by a user on atraffic producer Web site, such as a search engine. The embedded code istriggered by the internal mechanism of the user's browser and may beexecuted on the traffic quality intermediary Web site. Once triggered,the embedded code can act as a probe (probe code or tracking softwarecode) to collect some or all of the available traffic parametersrelating to the origin of the Web user request. This allows the trafficquality intermediary to collect information about a traffic producereven before a Web user actually clicks on a traffic consumer's listing.Traffic parameters collected through the triggered, embedded code can bethe same, but are not limited to the set collected after a Web userclicks on a traffic consumer's link.

In an exemplary embodiment, JavaScript scripting language could be usedto create the probe code. Probe code would be small enough so as not tosignificantly affect the traffic producer's Internet bandwidth usage. Atraffic consumer's listing may be modified to include the script to callthe code. Modification of a traffic consumer's listing would not bevisible to the Web user because the probe code would be included in thespecial tags only viewed (interpreted) by the browser. The following isan example of embedded code:

<script src=“http://TrafficQualityIntermediary.com/ref.jsp?listingID=152”></script>

Script tags signal to the browser not to display the content within thescript tags to the Web user, and to execute a request to the referencedtraffic quality intermediary Web site. The traffic quality intermediarycompletes the request and collects traffic parameters from the trafficproducer. It is a similar action to the one that occurs when a Web userclicks on a listing and gets redirected to the traffic qualityintermediary before reaching the Web site of the selected listing.

Collection of this information is helpful in determining whether the Webuser came to a traffic producer from another Web site or if script orsome other artificial means is used to simulate Web users coming to atraffic producer's Web site.

FIG. 9 shows a flow diagram of process 300. Process 300 is the processof probe code collecting available information from a traffic producer'sWeb site as a traffic consumer's listing is displayed to the Web user.

In block 302 a traffic quality intermediary or traffic consumer updatesone or more listings on the traffic producer's Web site to include probecode. In an exemplary embodiment, this probe code is written inJavaScript.

In block 304 the traffic consumer's listing is loaded on the Web user'sbrowser for the Web user to see.

In block 306 the parameterized code is executed. Traffic parameters arecollected and relayed to traffic quality intermediary.

In block 308 the traffic quality intermediary collects information aboutthe Traffic producer and the prior Web site.

In block 310 the Web user clicks on a listing and gets redirected to thetraffic intermediary.

In block 312 the traffic intermediary stores information about therequest and forwards the Web user's request to the appropriate trafficconsumer.

In Block 314 the information obtained from the probe code is(optionally) combined with other user traffic information obtained forthe particular Web user. If information from the probe code was executedprior to the traffic request from the Web user was available, it wouldbe joined to the respective information collected from the Web userrequest when that information is received. It may be that all usertraffic information is obtained through the probe code. By combining allavailable user traffic information (obtained through probe code orotherwise) a more complete picture of the Web user's behavior on thetraffic producer's Web site can be obtained.

For example, a traffic quality intermediary might be able to determinewhat other Web site the Web user came from before visiting trafficproducer's Web site (prior Web site). The prior Web site may alreadyhave been analyzed by the system and method of the present inventiondescribed above and the prior Web site ranking may be yet anotherparameter collected and used in the analysis of the given trafficproducer. Traffic data relating to prior Web site visits by a user isreferred to as prior Web site traffic data.

If no information about the prior Web site is available within thetraffic quality intermediary's domain, it is possible to determine ifthe Web user came from an actual Web site or if fraudulent code or othermeans was used to simulate the Web user actions.

For example, if probe code was inserted in the traffic consumer'slisting on the traffic producer's Web site, and user traffic was flowingfrom the traffic producer's Web site, but the probe code never executed,it may indicate that the traffic producer is simulating user traffic.This finding would have to be evaluated further to validate that the Webuser did not have interpretation and execution of scripts disabled ontheir browser. Typically, JavaScript is enabled on a Web user'sbrowsers. If JavaScript probe code was never executed with any of theWeb users in the user traffic stream, it is an indication that thetraffic producer may have been generating fictitious traffic. Otherindications, or trends could be determined based on information obtainedusing the probe code.

Although illustrated and described herein with reference to certainspecific embodiments, the present invention is nevertheless not intendedto be limited to the details shown. Rather, various modifications may bemade in the details within the scope and range of equivalents of theclaims and without departing from the spirit of the invention.

1. A method of determining quality rankings of user traffic directedfrom at least one traffic producer Web site to a plurality of trafficconsumer Web sites, comprising the steps of: a) establishing a pluralityof references for the plurality of traffic consumers on the at least oneWeb site of the traffic producer, the plurality of references eachincluding a link to a traffic quality intermediary and a uniqueidentifier to identify a respective traffic consumer from other trafficconsumers of the plurality of traffic consumers; b) directing, using arespective link, user traffic data received by the traffic qualityintermediary through the traffic quality intermediary from the at leastone traffic producer Web site to one or more of the plurality of trafficconsumer Web sites, the user traffic data being associated with the usertraffic directed from the at least one traffic producer; and c)determining, at the traffic quality intermediary, a quality ranking ofthe user traffic of each of the traffic consumers based upon a weightingof a plurality of traffic data parameters associated with the usertraffic data received by the traffic quality intermediary and the uniqueidentifier of the respective traffic consumer.
 2. A method ofdetermining a quality ranking of user traffic in accordance with claim1, wherein step (b) of directing the user traffic data through thetraffic quality intermediary from the traffic producer Web site to theone or more traffic consumer Web sites includes redirecting the usertraffic from the traffic quality intermediary to the one or more trafficconsumer Web sites.
 3. A method of determining a quality ranking of usertraffic in accordance with claim 2, comprising the further step (d) ofreporting the quality ranking.
 4. A method of determining a qualityranking of user traffic in accordance with claim 3, wherein the usertraffic data is comprised of the plurality of traffic data parametersand the step (c) of determining the quality ranking comprises the stepsof: comparing each of the plurality of traffic data parameters of theuser traffic data against a baseline group, the baseline groupcomprising a respective baseline for each of the traffic dataparameters; determining a deviation for each of the plurality of trafficdata parameters of the user traffic data based on the comparison;weighting the deviation for each of the plurality of traffic dataparameters with a predetermined weight assigned to each of the pluralityof traffic data parameters to generate the weighted plurality of trafficdata parameters; and combining each of the weighted deviations to arriveat the traffic quality ranking.
 5. A method of determining a qualityranking of user traffic in accordance with claim 4, wherein before thestep of comparing, aggregating at least one traffic data parameter ofthe user traffic data.
 6. A method of determining a quality ranking ofuser traffic in accordance with claim 5, further comprising the step ofnormalizing the aggregated user traffic data and the step of determiningthe quality ranking is based upon the normalized user traffic data.
 7. Amethod of determining a quality ranking of user traffic in accordancewith claim 6, wherein all traffic data parameters are aggregated andnormalized.
 8. A method of determining a quality ranking of user trafficin accordance with claim 5, wherein the user traffic data is aggregatedover either a period of time or a number of user selections of alisting.
 9. A method of determining a quality ranking of user traffic inaccordance with claim 8, wherein the user traffic data is aggregated byseparately aggregating each of the plurality of traffic data parametersover either the period of time or the number of user selections of thelisting.
 10. A method of determining a quality ranking of user trafficin accordance with claim 9, wherein at least one of the aggregatedplurality of traffic data parameters is represented as a percentage ofoccurrences of that traffic data parameter, over the period of time orthe number of user selections of the listing.
 11. A method ofdetermining a quality ranking of user traffic in accordance with claim4, wherein the baseline group is based upon a predetermined group oftraffic producers.
 12. A method of determining a quality ranking of usertraffic in accordance with claim 11, wherein the predetermined group oftraffic producers is an industry grouping into which the plurality oftraffic consumers are categorized or a grouping based on a common factorto a respective one or ones of the traffic consumers and the others inthe grouping or a general grouping of traffic producers.
 13. A method ofdetermining a quality ranking of user traffic in accordance with claim11, wherein the predetermined group of traffic producers is an industrygrouping into which the traffic producer is categorized or a groupingbased on a common factor to the traffic producer and the others in thegrouping or a general grouping of traffic producers.
 14. A method ofdetermining a quality ranking of user traffic in accordance with claim4, wherein the steps that comprise the step (c) of determining thequality ranking are repeated for each of a plurality of baseline groups.15. A method of determining a quality ranking of user traffic inaccordance with claim 4, wherein the user traffic data includes datareceived from the traffic producer and data either determined orassigned by the traffic quality intermediary.
 16. A method ofdetermining a quality ranking of user traffic in accordance with claim15, wherein the data either determined or assigned by the trafficquality intermediary includes a time of the received user traffic data.17. A method of determining a quality ranking of user traffic inaccordance with claim 15, wherein the user traffic data comprises one ormore of: a Universal Resource Locator (URL) of the traffic producer Website; a time associated with receipt of the user traffic at the trafficquality intermediary; one or more keywords used in selecting a listingon the traffic producer Web site; a number of mouse clicks used inselecting the listing on the traffic producer Web site; a browserlanguage; a country; screen settings of a user's computer used to selectthe listing; cookies stored on the user's computer; spatial coordinatesrelating to locations on a display of the user's computer, on which thelisting was displayed; proxy usage through an Internet Service Provider(ISP); browser type; and an IP address of the user.
 18. A method ofdetermining a quality ranking of user traffic in accordance with claim4, wherein one or more of the plurality of traffic data parameters forthe baseline group is periodically changed.
 19. A method of determininga quality ranking of user traffic in accordance with claim 18, whereinthe one or more of the plurality of traffic data parameters for thebaseline group that is periodically changed is changed based upon usertraffic data received subsequent to a last time there was a change. 20.A method of determining a quality ranking of user traffic in accordancewith claim 4, further comprising the step of determining a cost for therespective traffic consumer to pay the traffic producer for user trafficbased on the quality ranking.
 21. A method of determining the quality ofuser traffic in accordance with claim 20, wherein the determined cost isa cost per access of a listing on the traffic producer Web site.
 22. Amethod of determining a quality ranking of user traffic in accordancewith claim 6, wherein the step of normalizing the aggregated datacomprises the step of setting ranges for each parameter of aggregateddata to be normalized and assigning a value for each range.
 23. A methodof determining the quality of user traffic in accordance with claim 4,wherein the step of combining each of the weighted deviations iscomprised of the step of adding the combined weighted deviations.
 24. Amethod of determining the quality of user traffic in accordance withclaim 4, wherein the quality ranking falls within a scale, the scalehaving an upper limit and a lower limit.
 25. A method of determining aquality ranking of user traffic in accordance with claim 4, wherein,before step (a), registering the plurality of traffic consumers with thetraffic quality intermediary, and the step of registering with thetraffic quality intermediary comprises the steps of: a) receiving andstoring at least one Universal Resource Locator (URL), for each of thetraffic consumers for the traffic quality intermediary to use inredirecting the user traffic to the respective traffic consumer; b)assigning the respective traffic consumer at least one unique identifierto identify the at least one URL of the respective traffic consumer in alisting.
 26. A method of determining a quality ranking of user trafficin accordance with claim 4, wherein an amount of revenue generated atthe respective traffic consumer by user traffic from the trafficproducer that is redirected by the traffic quality intermediary isprovided to the traffic quality intermediary and a user trafficconversion potential ranking is determined based upon the qualityranking and the revenue generated.
 27. A method of determining a qualityranking of user traffic in accordance with claim 26, wherein the usertraffic conversion potential is determined for either a period of timeor a number of user selections of a listing.
 28. A method of determininga quality ranking of user traffic in accordance with claim 1, whereinthe respective traffic consumer has a plurality of Universal ResourceLocators (URLs) and a separate reference is established for each URL.29. A method of determining a quality ranking of user traffic inaccordance with claim 4, wherein the step of weighting the deviation isadjustable by the user.
 30. A method of determining a quality ranking ofuser traffic in accordance with claim 9, wherein the step of reportingthe quality ranking is comprised of the steps of: a) providing the userwith access to the traffic quality intermediary to obtain the qualityranking; and b) allowing the user to set the period of time or thenumber of user selections.
 31. A method of determining a quality rankingof user traffic directed from at least one traffic producer Web site toa plurality of traffic consumer Web sites, comprising the steps of: a)establishing a plurality of references for the plurality of trafficconsumers on the at least one Web site of the traffic producer, theplurality of references each including a link from the traffic producerto a traffic quality intermediary and a unique identifier to identify arespective traffic consumer from other traffic consumers of theplurality of traffic consumers; b) receiving at the traffic qualityintermediary user traffic data associated with the user traffic directedfrom the traffic producer; c) determining, at the traffic qualityintermediary, a quality ranking of the user traffic of each of thetraffic consumers based upon a weighting of a plurality of traffic dataparameters associated with the user traffic data received by the trafficquality intermediary and the unique identifier of the respective trafficconsumer; and d) directing, using a respective link, the user trafficthrough the traffic quality intermediary from the at least one trafficproducer Web site to one or more of the plurality of traffic consumerWeb sites.
 32. A method of determining a quality ranking of user trafficdirected from at least one traffic producer Web site to a plurality oftraffic consumer Web sites, comprising the steps of: a) establishing aplurality of references for the plurality of traffic consumers on the atleast one Web site of the traffic producer, the plurality of referenceseach including a link from the traffic producer to a traffic qualityintermediary and a unique identifier to identify a respective trafficconsumer from other traffic consumers of the plurality of trafficconsumers; b) receiving at the traffic quality intermediary user trafficdata associated with the user traffic directed from the trafficproducer; c) directing, using a respective link, the user trafficthrough the traffic quality intermediary from the at least one trafficproducer Web site to one or more of the plurality of traffic consumerWeb sites; d) determining, at the traffic quality intermediary, aquality ranking of the user traffic of the respective traffic consumerbased upon a weighting of a plurality of traffic data parametersassociated with the user traffic data received by the traffic qualityintermediary and the unique identifier of the respective trafficconsumer; and e) reporting the quality ranking of the respective trafficconsumer.
 33. A computerized method of determining a quality ranking ofuser traffic over a communications network, directed from at least onetraffic producer Web site, hosted by a computer device linked to thecommunications network to a plurality of traffic consumer Web sites,hosted by computer devices linked to the communications network, themethod comprising the steps of: a) establishing a plurality ofreferences for the plurality of traffic consumers on the at least oneWeb site of the traffic producer, the plurality of references eachincluding a link from the traffic producer to a traffic qualityintermediary, the traffic quality intermediary defined by a computerdevice linked to the communications network, and a unique identifier toidentify a respective traffic consumer from other traffic consumers ofthe plurality of traffic consumers; b) receiving at the traffic qualityintermediary user traffic data associated with the user traffic directedfrom the traffic producer; c) directing, using a respective link, theuser traffic through the traffic quality intermediary from the at leastone traffic producer Web site to one or more of the plurality of trafficconsumer Web sites; d) determining, at the traffic quality intermediary,a quality ranking of the user traffic of each of the traffic consumersbased upon the user traffic data received by the traffic qualityintermediary and the unique identifier of the respective trafficconsumer comprising the steps of: i) comparing each of a plurality oftraffic data parameters of the user traffic data against a baselinegroup, the baseline group comprising a respective baseline for each ofthe plurality of traffic data parameters of the user, ii) determining adeviation for each of the plurality of traffic data parameters of theuser traffic data based on the comparison, iii) weighting the deviationfor each of the plurality of traffic data parameters of the user with apredetermined weight assigned to each of the plurality of traffic dataparameters of the user, and iv) combining each of the weighteddeviations to arrive at the traffic quality ranking of the respectivetraffic consumer; and e) reporting the quality ranking of the respectivetraffic consumer.
 34. A computerized method of determining a qualityranking of user traffic over a communications network, the user trafficdirected from at least one traffic producer Web site hosted by acomputer device linked to the communications network, to a plurality oftraffic consumer Web sites hosted by computer devices linked to thecommunications network, the method comprising the steps of: a)establishing a plurality of references for the plurality of trafficconsumers on the at least one Web site of the traffic producer, theplurality of references each including a link from the traffic producerto a traffic quality intermediary defined by a computer device linked tothe communications network, and a unique identifier to identify arespective traffic consumer from other traffic consumers of theplurality of traffic consumers; b) receiving at the traffic qualityintermediary user traffic data associated with the user traffic directedfrom the traffic producer, the user traffic data comprised of aplurality of traffic data parameters; c) directing, using the respectivelink, the user traffic through the traffic quality intermediary from theat least one traffic producer Web site to one or more of the pluralityof traffic consumer Web sites; d) determining, at the traffic qualityintermediary a quality ranking of the user traffic of the respectivetraffic consumer based upon the user traffic data received by thetraffic quality intermediary and the unique identifier of the respectivetraffic consumer comprising the steps of: i) aggregating at least onetraffic data parameter of the user traffic data, ii) comparing each ofthe plurality of traffic data parameters of the aggregated user trafficdata against a baseline group, the baseline group comprising arespective baseline for each of the user traffic data parameters, iii)determining a deviation for each of the plurality of traffic dataparameters of the user traffic data based on the comparison, iv)normalizing the determined deviation for at least one of the pluralityof traffic data parameters of the user traffic data, v) weighting thedeviation for each of the plurality of traffic data parameters with apredetermined weight assigned to each of the plurality of traffic dataparameters and if a deviation is normalized, using the normalizeddeviation for the weighting, and vi) combining each of the weighteddeviations to arrive at the traffic quality ranking of the respectivetraffic consumer; and e) reporting the quality ranking of the respectivetraffic consumer.
 35. A computerized method of determining a qualityranking of user traffic associated with a plurality of users over acommunications network, each user directed from a traffic producer Website hosted by a computer device linked to the communications network,to a plurality of traffic consumer Web sites hosted by computer deviceslinked to the communications network, comprising the steps of: a)establishing a plurality of references for the plurality of trafficconsumers on the traffic producer Web site, the plurality of referenceseach including a link from the traffic producer to a traffic qualityintermediary, the traffic quality intermediary defined by a computerdevice linked to the communications network, and a unique identifier toidentify a respective traffic consumer from other traffic consumers ofthe plurality of traffic consumers; b) receiving at the traffic qualityintermediary user traffic data associated with each user of the usertraffic directed from the traffic producer, the user traffic data foreach user comprised of a plurality of traffic data parameters; c)directing, using a respective link, the user traffic through the trafficquality intermediary from the traffic producer Web site to one or moreof the plurality of traffic consumer Web sites; d) determining, at thetraffic quality intermediary, a quality ranking of the user traffic ofeach of the traffic consumers based upon the user traffic data receivedby the traffic quality intermediary and the unique identifier of therespective traffic consumer comprising the steps of: i) aggregating theuser traffic data for each traffic data parameter, ii) comparing each ofthe plurality of traffic data parameters of the aggregated user trafficdata against a baseline group, the baseline group comprising arespective baseline for each of the user traffic data parameters, iii)determining a deviation for each of the plurality of traffic dataparameters of the user traffic data based on the comparison, iv)normalizing the determined deviation for at least one of the pluralityof traffic data parameters of the user traffic data, v) weighting thenormalized deviation for each of the plurality of traffic dataparameters with a predetermined weight assigned to each of the pluralityof traffic data parameters, and vi) combining each of the weighteddeviations to arrive at the traffic quality ranking of the respectivetraffic consumer; and e) reporting the quality ranking of the respectivetraffic consumer.
 36. A method of determining a baseline for use indetermining a quality ranking of user traffic associated with aplurality of users, each user being directed from a traffic producer Website to a plurality of traffic consumer Web sites, and the user traffichaving user traffic data associated with each user of the user trafficand the user traffic data being comprised of a plurality of traffic dataparameters, the method comprising the steps of: a) directing the usertraffic through the traffic quality intermediary from the trafficproducer Web site to the plurality of traffic consumer Web sites; b)monitoring the user traffic between the traffic producer Web site andthe plurality of traffic consumer Web sites for a predetermined periodof time; c) collecting the user traffic data associated with each userof the monitored user traffic; d) storing the traffic data parameters ofthe collected user traffic data; e) aggregating separately each of thestored traffic data parameters; f) determining the baseline for each ofthe aggregated traffic data parameters; and g) weighting each of theaggregated traffic data parameters to determine a quality ranking of themonitored user traffic of each of the traffic consumers.
 37. A method ofdetermining a baseline in accordance with claim 36, wherein the usertraffic directed and monitored in steps (a) and (b) is from a pluralityof traffic producers with each of the plurality of traffic producershaving a predetermined relationship to each other.
 38. A method ofdetermining a baseline in accordance with claim 36, wherein the usertraffic directed and monitored in steps (a) and (b) is from a pluralityof traffic producers.
 39. A system of determining a quality ranking ofuser traffic directed from at least one traffic producer Web site to aplurality of traffic consumer Web sites, comprising: a) means forestablishing a plurality of references for the plurality of trafficconsumers on the at least one Web site of the traffic producer, theplurality of references each including a link from the traffic producerto a traffic quality intermediary and a unique identifier to identify arespective traffic consumer from other traffic consumers of theplurality of traffic consumers; b) at least one computer for directing,using a respective link, the user traffic through the traffic qualityintermediary from the traffic producer Web site to the plurality oftraffic consumer Web sites, the traffic quality intermediary receivinguser traffic data associated with the user traffic directed from thetraffic producer; and c) at least one computer for determining a qualityranking of the user traffic of each of the traffic consumers based upona weighting of a plurality of traffic data parameters associated withthe user traffic data received by the traffic quality intermediary andthe unique identifier of the respective traffic consumer.
 40. A systemof determining a quality ranking of user traffic directed from at leastone traffic producer Web site to a plurality of traffic consumer Websites, comprising: a) means for establishing a plurality of referencesfor the plurality of traffic consumers on the at least one Web site ofthe traffic producer, the plurality of references each including a linkfrom the traffic producer to a traffic quality intermediary and a uniqueidentifier to identify a respective traffic consumer from other trafficconsumers of the plurality of traffic consumers; b) at least onecomputer for directing, using a respective link, the user trafficthrough the traffic quality intermediary from the traffic producer Website to one or more of the plurality of traffic consumer Web sites, thetraffic quality intermediary receiving traffic quality intermediary usertraffic data associated with the user traffic directed from the trafficproducer; c) at least one computer for determining, at the trafficquality intermediary, a quality ranking of the user traffic of each ofthe traffic consumers based upon a weighting of a plurality of trafficdata parameters associated with the user traffic data received by thetraffic quality intermediary and the unique identifier of the respectivetraffic consumer; and d) means for redirecting the user traffic from thetraffic quality intermediary to the respective traffic consumer Website.
 41. A system of determining, at the traffic quality intermediary,a quality ranking of user traffic directed from at least one trafficproducer Web site to a plurality of traffic consumer Web sites,comprising: a) means for establishing a plurality of references for theplurality of traffic consumers on the at least one Web site of thetraffic producer, the plurality references each including a link fromthe traffic producer to a traffic quality intermediary and a uniqueidentifier to identify a respective traffic consumer from other trafficconsumers of the plurality of traffic consumers; b) at least onecomputer for receiving at the traffic quality intermediary user trafficdata associated with the user traffic directed from the trafficproducer; c) means for directing, using a respective link, the usertraffic through the traffic quality intermediary from the trafficproducer Web site to one or more of the plurality of traffic consumerWeb sites; d) at least one computer for determining a quality ranking ofthe user traffic of the respective traffic consumer based upon aweighting of a plurality of traffic data parameters associated with theuser traffic data and the unique identifier of the respective trafficconsumer; and e) means for reporting the quality ranking of therespective traffic consumer.
 42. A method of determining a qualityranking of user traffic in accordance with claim 17, wherein the usertraffic data is further comprised of the URL of a Web site visited by auser prior to the traffic producer's Web site.
 43. A method ofdetermining a quality ranking of user traffic in accordance with claim31, wherein step (d) comprises the further step of modifying a referencefor the respective traffic consumer to allow tracking of a user by thetraffic quality intermediary.
 44. A method of determining a qualityranking of user traffic in accordance with claim 43 wherein the step ofmodifying the reference comprises the step of embedding software code inthe reference to collect user traffic data.
 45. A method of determininga quality ranking of user traffic in accordance with claim 44, whereinthe embedded software code is adapted to execute when the reference forthe respective traffic consumer is loaded and before a user clicks onthe reference for the respective traffic consumer.
 46. A method ofdetermining a quality ranking of user traffic in accordance with claim45, wherein the embedded software code supplies the traffic qualityintermediary with prior Web site traffic data relating to prior Web sitevisits by the user.
 47. A method of determining a quality ranking ofuser traffic in accordance with claim 46, wherein the prior Web sitetraffic data is relayed to and collected by the traffic qualityintermediary before the user selects the reference to the respectivetraffic consumer.
 48. A method of determining a quality ranking of usertraffic in accordance with claim 47, wherein the collected prior Website traffic data is stored and analyzed by the traffic qualityintermediary.
 49. A method of determining a quality ranking of usertraffic in accordance with claim 47, wherein the collected prior Website traffic data is combined with other traffic data and analyzed bythe traffic quality intermediary.
 50. A method of determining a qualityranking of user traffic in accordance with claim 1, wherein theplurality of traffic data parameters include at least one of (1) a clickdelay indicating a delay period between a search request and a click ofthe respective link, (2) a time associated with receipt of the usertraffic at the traffic quality intermediary, (3) a number of mouseclicks used in selecting a listing on the traffic producer Web site, (4)a browser language, (5) a country, or (6) spatial coordinates relatingto locations on a display of a user's computer, on which the listing wasdisplayed.
 51. A method of determining a quality ranking of user trafficin accordance with claim 1, further comprising: determining using one ormore of the plurality of traffic data parameters whether the usertraffic data associated therewith had been simulated.